We rank all eight of the official Planet of the Apes movies from least to greatest
With fans buzzing over 20th Century Fox’s War for the Planet of the Apes‘ Times Square motion poster reveal, ahead of its New York Comic Con event, we thought it a fine time to flashback to all eight of the official Planet of the Apes movies thus far, ranking them in order of their quality and re-watchability.
The original Planet of the Apes film was released in 1968, a labor of love for all involved and it was a huge success, both critically and commercially. The movie – which starred aging Hollywood icon Charlton Heston as Col. Taylor, an American astronaut lost in the brutal landscape of a planet ruled by talking, socialized simians, one where mute humans are the “dogs” – spawned four sequels, in which supporting actor Roddy McDowall’s intellectual, liberal Chimpanzee Cornelius (and his own son, Caesar) became the star.
The Planet of the Apes movies inspired both a short-lived live-action series (itself edited down to a series of TV movies) and an even shorter-lived animated series, as well as a wealth of merchandise, comics and toys.
Later, Tim Burton hooked up with Apes legend Richard Zanuck to make a new Planet of the Apes movie and of course, more recently, the series was revived again, forgoing prosthetic make up effects for state of the art digital effects and a more operatic sense of apocalyptic dread.
Now, director Matt Reeves is on the cusp of unleashing the third entry in that new series, War for the Planet of the Apes, with Andy Serkis’ warrior ape Caesar continuing the bloody battle with the rogue humans inadvertently started in the previous entry, 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.
But for now, sit back and get your thumb ready to scroll through our assessment of the Planet of the Apes movies released to date. Our ranking choices might surprise you…
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8. Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
Beneath suffers from Jaws 2 syndrome, a film that attempts to replicate the beats of the first film too closely and because of that, it simply doesn't have its own fingerprint. That and the absence of Roddy McDowall and general dour, joyless tone of it sink this one and do not lend it to multiple viewings. The Marvel Comics adaptation is superior. Surprisingly, despite the film's bloody and nihilistic climax, the film was rated G in the U.S.
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7. Planet of the Apes (2001)
Apes purists sneered at and continue to flip the bird to Tim Burton's baroque "re-imagining" of Planet of the Apes but it's actually a decent bit of pulp fantasy. Remember, Burton initially did not want the movie called Planet of the Apes at all and was attempting to adapt the original source book, rather than remake the 1968 original. Mark Wahlberg is blank as the lead and making the humans sentient and articulate was a mistake, but this Apes has startling prosthetic effects, fantastic performances by Helena Bonham Carter and Paul Giammatti and a mesmerizing turn by Tim Roth as the psychotic General Thade. A film that needs more love.
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6. Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
The fifth and final of the initial Apes series, J. Lee Thompson's lower budgeted entry is often derrided as being cheap and childish. But it's really rather exciting and moving, with Roddy McDowall's Caesar venturing into the wasteland to find evidence of his parents and then doing battle with racist Gorillas in his base empire. Great cast, including Paul Williams as Caeser's trusted advisor and Claude Akins as the brutal General Aldo. And Severn Darden makes a memorable villain indeed.
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5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
No one expected this re-mounting of the Apes mythology to be this good, but it's truly a marvelous entertainment. Essentially a new version of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, with liberal doses of Project X thrown into the mix, Rise is ultimately an origins story and because of this, multiple viewing power is diminished. And though some of the "human" actors in the film are lacking, Andy Serkis' motion capture performance as sentient primate Caesar is nothing short of arresting.
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4. Conquest for the Planet of the Apes (1972)
J. Lee Thompson's righteous fourth Apes film is, in the cyclical initial Apes timeline, an origins film, telling the tale of the creation of the "monkey planet". Diminishing budgets meant that the supporting ape masks were cheap rubber cowls but Roddy McDowall gives what might be his career best performance as the fugitive Caesar who, after he witness the brutalization of his people and his kindly "father" (a brilliant Ricardo Montalban) is killed, launches a full scale revolution. The original climax sees Caesar enacting the bloodiest of acts and that censored violence was restored for the recent DVD and Blu-ray versions.
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3. Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
With the planet decimated at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, director Don Taylor and writer Paul Dehn wisely brought their chimp heroes Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Zira (Kim Hunter) to earth. What starts as a goofy, fish out of water romp quickly turns deadly serious, jerking the viewers emotions around expertly and ending on a final image that is almost as haunting as the one in the original. A great film and a perfect Apes movie.
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2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
Essentially Battle to Rise of the Planet of the Apes' Conquest, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a stunning, smart, majestically designed and allegorically powerful companion to the original film and one of the greatest blockbuster sci-fi fantasies in years. Andy Serkis takes his version of Caesar to new heights and the movie he moves in is work of pop art.
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1. Planet of the Apes (1968)
Franklin J. Schaffner's untouchable adaptation of Pierre Boule's novel "Monkey Planet" by way of the morality of Rod Serling remains one of the greatest science fiction "future-shock" films of all time. The cast is dynamic (Charlton Heston offers his best genre work here, forming the first of his sci-fi trifecta of Soylent Green and The Omega Man) , Jerry Goldsmith's nightmarish music still chills, John Chambers' ape masks allow the actors to use only their eyes and voices to create deft characters and, whether you've seen it 100 times or for the first time, that final shot is unforgettable, in both aesthetic and meaning. A perfect film.
